The instant invention relates to remote postage meter resetting systems, and more particularly to remote postage meter resetting systems with alternate postage funding sources.
Postage meters are devices for dispensing value in the form of postage printed on a mailpiece such as an envelope. The term postage meter also includes other similar meters that dispense an indication of value such as parcel post meters and tax stamp machines. Postage meters of this type print and account for postage (value) stored within the meter.
Since the above mentioned postage meters have a finite amount of postage value (to be dispensed) stored therein, they will eventually run out of stored postage value such that the postage meter is disabled from printing postage until additional postage value is added to the postage meter. Remote meter resetting systems have been developed which provide the capability of having postage added to these postage meters without requiring the postage meter to be physically brought into the post office. Examples of such conventional remote postage meter resetting systems are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,447,890 and 4,097,923, each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
While the aforementioned remote postage meter resetting systems work very well and include complex security features to ensure that the integrity of the system is not compromised, there is still a basic limitation in these systems which impacts the user of the postage meter. That is, generally the known postage meter resetting systems consist of a remote data center that is in communication with the postage meter user via a telephone line. The user indicates via the telephone line the amount of postage that is to be added to the postage meter. The remote data center, upon receipt of this information, then communicates with an accounting data base which has a user account associated with the individual user and the specific meter or meters in the possession of that user. The user account has funds therein which the user has prepaid by sending a check to the postal authority. Thus, if the user account has sufficient funds to cover the amount of postage requested by the user to be added to the postage meter, the data center determines this and provides the user, via the telephone line, with a resetting code which permits the desired postage funds to be added to the meter. The user account is then debited by the amount of the funds added to the meter. However, if the user account has insufficient funds to cover the requested postage to be added to the postage meter, the user is advised that such is the case and the postage reset transaction is terminated without postage being added to the postage meter. In this situation, the user would have to send a check to the postal authority to increase the amount of funds in the user account before postage could be added via the postage meter resetting system to the postage meter. Depending upon the speed at which the user can write a check and get it to the postal authority, several days or more could pass before the postage meter can be recharged with postage funds via the remote resetting system. Accordingly, if the user had utilized all of the funds in the postage meter prior to attempting to recharge the meter and the user account had insufficient funds therein, the user would not be able to dispense postage via their meter thereby preventing the mailing of potentially important mailpieces or requiring a trip to the post office to accomplish the necessary mailing thereby defeating the benefits of having a postage meter in the first place.
In order to overcome the above problem, some users have actually been known to have a backup postage meter which is utilized in the event that the first meter runs out of funds and can""t be recharged because of insufficient funds in the user account. While this solution certainly helps, the user is paying to rent two meters when, based on their mail volume, they only really need one.
It is an object of the invention to provide a remote postage meter resetting system which overcomes the problems discussed above with the prior art systems by permitting a postage funds resetting request to be completed even if there are insufficient funds available in the user""s prepaid postage account to cover the amount of postage requested to be added to the postage meter.
The above object is met by providing a remote postage meter resetting system having apparatus for sending a request to recharge the postage meter by the postage recharge amount together with first data indicative of a first user prepaid postage account resident in a prepaid postage account data base having a plurality of prepaid postage accounts; and a data center including apparatus for receiving from the sending apparatus the first data together with. the request to recharge the postage meter by the postage recharge amount; a line of credit database having a plurality of lines of credit each of which is associated with at least one of the plurality of prepaid postage accounts; a computer, in communication with the receiving apparatus, which is programmed to 1) obtain the first data and the postage recharge amount from the receiving apparatus, and 2) communicate with the prepaid postage account data base to determine if sufficient funds are in the first user prepaid postage account to cover the cost of the postage recharge amount, wherein at times when the computer determines that sufficient funds are not available in the first user account to cover the cost of the postage recharge amount the computer is programmed to automatically 1) communicate with the line of credit data base to determine if one of the plurality of lines of credit is associated with the first user prepaid postage account and 2) generate and send enabling data via the receiving apparatus to the sending apparatus only if the computer determines that one of the plurality of lines of credit is associated with the first user prepaid postage account; and structure for obtaining the enabling data from the sending apparatus and for providing the postage meter with the enabling data to effectuate resetting of the postage meter by the postage recharge amount.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.